I got to see Dominic on exchanges this week! Remember him? He's from Vista, and Hermana Eskeets and I got to teach him. I went on my last exchange this past week to Vista and we walked by and he was outside! It was good to see him and give him some encouragement. The elders that work with him now are the assistants to the president and I know they're taking good care of him. The hermanas there are going to try to start teaching his family again. Hopefully the hearts will be open to the message this time. The exchange was a bittersweet flashback to the beginning of my mission. It was in the very same area where I began my mission, so the streets, smells, people, and apartment were all familiar and brought back some of my favorite memories. I got to see some old friends, plan lessons for people I used to teach, and we even ran the same running route that I ran those first few months of my mission every morning. It was a tender mercy, really. I absolutely love my mission, and this last exchange was a blessing to me.
GENERAL CONFERENCE WAS AMAZING! All of the talks were so inspired, and inspiring! I especially loved the talk by Linda Reeves, along with many others. Did you notice that many of the speakers addressed their talks to the youth and the family? Also, did you all make plans to obtain your own copies of Preach My Gospel? Go Elder Ballard!! He's great! Tell me what you're learning about in Preach My Gospel! Today I was studying in Chapter 10 under the section called "how to begin teaching," which is the basics/introduction that we share with people when we begin to teach them. It explains that no matter what you are going through right now, the gospel can help you to overcome it. And it's so true! The entire Palacios family came to general conference, and so did Maricruz, and several of the less active members we are working with!!! Yay!! We're still trying to figure out the right day for Maricruz to get baptized. She says she knows that she needs to, but she wants to also feel it in her heart- she wants to have a spiritual witness in her heart that this is what she needs to do, even though she knows it mentally. We agree, that she should have the spirit testify to her heart before she commits to do it (although she feels the spirit every time she comes to church and reads in the book of mormon and takes lessons with us. she describes it as a peace that comes over her). She's close :) and she's wonderful! Updates to come! We know that she really loved all four sessions of conference this weekend, and her favorite talks were those that mentioned baptism.
We got 7 new investigators this week! 2 families! Woo hoo! We're teaching one of the families tonight, and they are really searching for truth. We're so excited to teach them. Then tonight we're teaching someone named George. We contacted George outside of his house last week and told him who we were and how our message of the gospel can change his life. He told us that if we could find him at home that he'd be willing to listen to our message sometime. Then, a few days later, when we were on exchanges, he saw Hermana Woodruff and Hermana Johnson and waved them down and said "hey! I've been thinking about what you said to me the other day. It keeps coming back to me and I really want a change in my life. Can you please come over on Monday to teach me?" Isn't that neat?!! People are prepared and ready to receive the gospel :).
I'm so glad that Tawnya came over for conference and that she enjoyed it so much! I bet the elders there are so grateful for you guys for being her friend and being willing to help in her conversion process. That's so neat that Jake has the opportunity to do missionary work through Facebook and help answer some of Tawnya's questions, "ask the missionaries! They can help!"
I'm so excited for Jesse's Camp Geronimo job! He is going to love that!
To answer the questions for when I come home, there's not any specific food that I miss or anything in particular that I'd like to eat haha whatever we're having that night will be just fine, JUST NOT MEXICAN FOOD! The weird thing is, is that I eat it every day here, but it's soooo good and I don't get tired of it. But I get grossed out by american-ized mexican food. Believe me it is not the same..
THE GOSPEL IS SO TRUE! TELL EVERYONE!
Love,
Hermana Inman
